


Meeting for the First Time - Again

by MirrorandImage



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25942681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorandImage/pseuds/MirrorandImage
Summary: [Complete] Fria and Ozpin have a conversation. Ficlet.
Kudos: 20





	Meeting for the First Time - Again

Fria felt her blood hum as soon as the transport landed on the academy grounds, and she knew who her visitor was. She turned to her attache - whom she was using as a secretary, and told him to clear her schedule for the next few hours and to escort the Headmaster of Beacon up to her.

"Ma'am?" he asked, eyes wide and a little confused.

She smiled. "It's about time that brat came to introduce himself," she said lightly, running her fingers through her greying hair. "Go get him, tell him I'm waiting."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, saluting and turning. Ah, she would cure him of that eventually.

Fifteen minutes later the old brat came in. His hair was white instead of dark, he was much taller, he wore tinted glasses, and she saw his cane retracted at his hip, just visible under his suit jacket. Still a fan of green, she mused, before getting up. "Headmaster Ozpin," she said brightly, walking around her desk to take his hand. "It's good to finally meet you for the first time - again."

"Headmaster Fria, the honor is all mine," he said, and his voice was a rich tenor, smooth and easy-going. "Though I'm curious what you mean by 'again'," he added, brown eyes darting to her glorified secretary.

"The Vytal Festival," she said easily, escorting him to a chair. "You came up to Atlas to personally supervise one of your teams, I can't remember the name."

"I remember," he said softly, taking a seat. "I was pleased when they did so well."

"Ha!" Fria said, "Captain Ironwood over there would have a very different opinion."

" _Ma'am_ ," her attache said. He gave nothing away but she knew very well how embarrassed he was for the tease.

"Ironwood?" Ozpin said, turning and giving the man a thorough scrutiny. "You gave my students quite a run for their lien, as I recall. Excellent work. Thank you for pushing them."

"Sir!" he said, straightening.

"That will be all for now, James," Fria said lightly. "Go tell the general I said you could be off-duty for a few hours."

"Ma'am," he said, saluting again and spinning on his heel, marching away.

Fria smiled as he closed the door behind him. "When I retire in five, six years, he should be polished enough to take over," she said. "If you're looking for new members to the club, he'd be an interesting choice."

Oz took a slow, silent breath. Thoughtful, this one. Fria approved, settling more comfortably in her chair. "Would it be wise?" he asked. "To have a member of the military as a Headmaster? They already recruit hunters right out of graduation. It makes me… It makes _Oz_ … uncomfortable."

Fria smiled again. "We've had this fight before, old man," she said. "Though now you're younger than me by a good three decades. That's terribly unfair, you know. Hunters as independent operatives are useful, of course, you made it that way back when I was born; but there's an efficiency to having a few of them on hand to handle local problems in a more organized manner."

"I don't disagree," Oz said, nodding his head. "But… I've been in the military, many times. I've led armies - one relatively recently. Choice is so restricted in such a structure, and choice is something that I hold very dear."

"I know," Fria said. "And we're both old enough to agree to disagree. As you said back when you were older than me, it was my choice. Now:" she leaned back, thrumming her fingers along her desk. "What brings you here? You've been headmaster for several years now, I doubt it's to ask advice."

Oz smiled, but it was one of his weighty smiles, the kind she saw on the old version of him. "I apologize," he said. "Inheriting Beacon so young was a challenge. There was a lot of scrutiny, as you can imagine, and I couldn't afford to look like I needed help from other headmasters."

"Help?" Fria asked with a laugh. "When word came out of you launching students off a cliff as an idea of initiation you had the rest of us gnashing our teeth. That first Vytal Festival threw all of us into a tailspin when you wiped the floor with us; we were all struggling to figure out what kind of initiation we could do that even compared to yours. I can't exactly toss my freshmen over the edge of Atlas, you know."

Oz flushed, looking down. "That was not my intention," he said softly.

Sensitive, too, this one. Fria was old enough to know that the combination of thoughtful and sensitive meant he was kind, too. Well, technically, Oz was always kind, but sometimes it came out in backhanded ways; it was nice to see one that was more obvious about his feelings. Well, obvious for an Oz. He was also very adept at avoiding questions, and Fria allowed it for the moment so she could get to know her third Oz a little better.

The first one she barely remembered, five and in a courtroom, dancing with the old king before the war started. She met her second one thirty years later, when she inherited the magic in her blood. Average height, dark haired, blue eyes, a Huntsman of Vacuo before he eventually became headmaster. That Oz was firm, decisive, aloof and always a little lonely. She knew him for twenty years before the inevitable happened. Now she was meeting her third Oz: Tall, thoughtful, sensitive, and kind. She watched him, one leg crossed comfortably over the other, back straight and formal, academic in his words, smooth and charming in his intonation. But the telltale tightness was around his eyes - which for an Oz so young was so, _so_ sad. The sense of age appeared to always be with him, and this Oz, too, was lonely. She could tell.

"Why are you really here?" she asked, leaning forward. "Is it about the Faunus protests earlier this year? The news said you lost three teachers."

"Yes," Ozpin said. "One of them believed in fairy tales."

Fria winced. "I'm sorry. It always hurts. Was it Sage?"

"Yes."

"I remember teaching him. He was always trying his hardest."

"Yes."

Fria and Oz looked down, taking a moment to mourn. "Do you need a new teacher?" she asked.

"No," Oz said. "Something even worse happened."

Fria felt her blood chill, and somehow she knew. "We lost a maiden, didn't we?"

Oz was looking down, hands clasped in his lap. "Yes. The Fall Maiden."

"Oh, Autumn," Fria said, a hand rubbing her forehead. "That poor girl." She looked up. "Was it _her_?"

"Yes," Oz said, eyes downcast. "She staged the Faunus protests to riot just as Autumn went out to quell her wanderlust. Then came a dragon grimm of old."

Even at sixty-odd years old, Fria could still be surprised. "They're real?" she asked, incredulous, before she caught up with herself. "No, of course they are. Gods, if they're anything like the old stories… Oh, that poor girl." She rubbed her face again. She'd known Autumn for over a decade! It was such a gut punch, she was still so young-oh, no.

Fria looked up. "Do we know who Fall will go to?" she asked, eyes wide as the horror hit her.

"Her younger sister, Amber Gold," Oz said, pinching his brow. "That's why I'm here."

"You want me to talk to her?"

"If you are of a mind, yes. With the Summer Maiden still missing and Spring still so young…"

"I understand," Fria said, nodding her head. "Talking to her will help. How old is she now?"

"She just turned seventeen," Oz said, finally looking up. He looked just like the old him, world-weary and so _tired_. "Older than Spring, so I suppose there are small favors. I've made arrangements for her to come to Beacon for training, but I haven't even met her yet. Autumn… I promised her I'd look after her."

Fria nodded. "You've always been very good in that respect," she said. "Taking care of us. The Fall Maiden - Autumn, she told me how glad she was that you let her explore Vale, she knew that was a hard decision for you. Don't worry. I can drop by once the semester is over. The Vytal Festival is in Vale this year, isn't it? The perfect excuse. What else do you need?"

Oz held up a hand. "That should more than suffice," he said softly.

_That_ tone she knew very well, and Fria smiled. "Oh, Oz, you know you can't get away with that with me."

Oz blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"You can't just shoulder the weight of the world and quietly martyr yourself like that and think I wouldn't notice. We've both been through too much for that nonsense. The pretext of you coming here was to tell me about Fall, okay, mission accomplished. You want me to talk to her, also fine, but all of this could be handled in a call on the scroll. Why are you _really_ here?"

Oz stared at her - and that was new to this Oz; he was willing to show actual surprise. Probably because he was so young. And he was definitely _pale_ enough that a flush of embarrassment bloomed on his cheeks as he stared. Fria was delighted with the detail, filed it away for later (flagrant) abuse. Oz's eyes shifted everywhere, and he took a deep breath through his nose before he sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Perhaps I wanted camaraderie," he said softly, and that was more than the old Oz ever gave Fria, and the admission was so small it made her sad. Oz continued, "The maidens… they take after the children I had, and not for the first time I realize the burden I've placed on all of you, the danger you're in simply because you inspired me. What I had hoped would be a gift has turned into a curse not unlike mine, and I am filled with regret. I do all that I can to spare-" he cut himself off, biting down on the confession before he completed it, but Fria knew Oz well enough.

She stood, moving around her desk, running a hand through her salt-and-pepper hair, and leaned on the arm of Oz's chair, bending down and giving him a hug. He froze, afraid to accept the warmth, but Fria held on, and eventually he relaxed, admitting the need. A hand reached up and touched her arm.

"I've told you this before," she said softly, "I might not have chosen to be Winter, but I'm glad that I am. I'm glad I come from someone who inspired a broken old man to not give up on the world, that I come from someone who wanted to inspire hope and unity. Those aren't things to be ashamed of. You can have your regrets, old man, but don't let this be one of them."

"... thank you," he said, so softly and so muffled she almost didn't hear it. She pulled back, and Oz looked up at her, his brown eyes lightening to almost gold, and his smile was that of a father. "You're very kind," he said. "Fall-Autumn, too. Before the end she told me I was gentle. Sometimes it's so hard to see and…" he trailed off.

Fria nodded, and then she playfully ran a hand through his white hair. "I still say it's not fair that you're younger than me, but at least you _look_ like an old man with all that white hair."

Oz smiled, still a little broken, but he was able to retort. "Has your lower back started to ache?"

"No, Gods forbid, I'm too healthy for that."

He smirked. "We all think that, don't we?"

"So help me, Oz, if I have to meet a fourth you."

"Take it as a sign of your success."

"Success! As a sign of my _age_ you mean! There aren't a lot of us left who remember the old kingdoms - we're all sixty or older. Imagine how few of us there'll be when I turn a hundred!"

"You plan on being a centurion?"

"Oh, if I can help it I'm going to set some kind of age record, don't you worry. Once I retire and get that brat Ironwood in the office I'm going to annoy the hell out of everyone with how long I last!"

Oz smiled. "I look forward to it. I'll plan the retirement party."

Fria nodded sagely. "Bring good liquor, then," she said. " _Some_ of us plan on getting very drunk in celebration of no longer running this headache!"

**End**

**Author's Note:**

> ficlet more than anything else, and idea in my head that I had to get out on paper. This can be considered a follow-up to Saving Students but the prior doesn't need to be read to understand the former. Just the twins building a small corner of the world of Remnant.


End file.
